New York Bouquet

Inspired by a “Preparedness Parade” (for the US involvement in the war), Hassam began a series of over thirty paintings and prints of Fifth Avenue (renamed the “Avenue of the Allies” during the Liberty Loan Drives of 1918), showing the vast crowds that participated. Thousands of people came out for them, and they frequently lasted as much as twelve hours.An avid Francophile, and strongly anti-Germany, Hassam enthusiastically backed the Allied cause and the protection of French culture. Along with his wife, he joined with other artists in the war relief effort from nearly the beginning of the conflict in 1914, when most Americans as well as President Woodrow Wilson were decidedly isolationist. Hassam considered volunteering to record the war in Europe, but the government would not approve the trip. He was even arrested (and quickly released) for innocently sketching naval maneuvers along the city’s rivers. In addition to the time he gave to many committees, several of his flag pictures were contributed to the war relief in exchange for Liberty Bonds. Although he had great hopes that the entire series would sell as a war memorial set (for $100,000), the pictures were sold individually after several group exhibitions, the last at the Corcoran Gallery in 1922. (“‘The War to End All Wars’: Artists and World War I,” curated by Nancy E. Green and presented at the Johnson Museum, January 21-June 11, 2017)